


and you smiled because you knew

by magicandlight



Series: The States [44]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers, Statetalia
Genre: 5+1 Things, But thats not the point, Established Relationship, Gender Dysphoria, I think?, M/M, Quote: "I love you" "I know" (Star Wars), So much!, They Trust Each Other!, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:21:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29751258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicandlight/pseuds/magicandlight
Summary: Kit sighs, closing his eyes. "Love you."He doesn't have to look to know there's a smile on Tyler's face. "I know."
Relationships: Iowa/South Dakota (Hetalia)
Series: The States [44]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/788712
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	and you smiled because you knew

1\. 1894

There are lots of reasons Tyler likes Kit, but probably one of the more selfish reasons is that Kit didn't know him before.

Knowing it's selfish doesn't change the fact that on days like these, when his chest feels too tight and nothing is enough and he's hyperaware of the star in the back of his closet with a girl's name on it, he's grateful that Kit has never known him as anything but Tyler.

He can't even get out of bed today, but here's Kit, laying beside him, stumbling over the French words in Tyler's battered copy of Little Women.

Kit's dyslexic. It's hard for him to read English, let alone French, but he's reading one of Tyler's comfort books in Tyler's native language, just to make him feel better.

"Je t'aime," Tyler tells him.

Kit smiles, soft and small enough that his dimples don't even show. "I know," he answers back, but Tyler hears it for what it is anyway. 

2\. 1921

Tyler frowns- he does not _pout_ \- when Kit breaks the kiss to look at him. "What?"

"You're really out of breath," Kit says. "Should you- take your binder off it something? You've had it on all day."

"Oh." Honestly, that's the last thing he wants to do. Especially since he brought he didn't bring his usual no-binder sweater, the one that was big enough to conceal everything. "No, I'll be fine-"

"Tyler, just because your ribs will heal doesn't mean you should risk breaking them."

Tyler bites the inside of his cheek.

Broken ribs would heal, but they'd probably have to be wrapped and taped. Even taking off the binder is better than having to ask Kit to wrap his ribs.

"Fine," Tyler says, and hears the fragile note in his own voice. "Just-"

Kit's hands are already over his eyes, like a child playing peekaboo.

Tyler takes off the binder and gets his shirt back on as fast as he can anyway.

"Hey," Kit says, hands still covering his eyes. "You know I love you, right?"

Tyler inhales shakily. "Yeah, I know."

3\. 1947

"Helena told me you were sick."

Kit hums in understanding, since he doesn't have the energy to talk right now. The first time he'd coughed, Helena had looked at him with worried eyes. By the time the fever started, she'd left, though with the promise to get Tyler before she went home, which was nice of her.

Helena doesn't do sick people. After the Spanish flu killed her, no one can really blame her for it either. Being sick is scarier than getting shot or stabbed or losing body parts. If they get hurt, they either heal or they die and come back, and it's over. Dying doesn't make illnesses go away. They just stay sick until they stop dying and recover from it.

"How do you feel?" Tyler asks as he brushes Kit's sweaty bangs off his forehead. His hands are still winter-weather cool and Kit presses closer.

It takes a moment for Kit to remember he was asked a question. "Bad."

Tyler laughs, and Kit hears the crinkle of a paper bag before Tyler hands him some medicine and a bottle of apple juice.

Obediently, Kit struggles into a sitting position against his headboard and takes the pills, watching as Tyler kicks off his shoes and climbs into bed beside him.

Kit closes his eyes for a moment or two, opening them again when it seems Tyler's settled. "What're you reading?"

"Les Miserables. It's for a class."

"Read it to me? I don't read French very well." Kit murmurs sleepily. He's not entirely sure Tyler can even understand him with his voice shot to hell from coughing up his lungs every ten minutes.

Tyler seems to get the gist of it though, since he begins reading it to him after a short pause.

Kit sighs, closing his eyes. "Love you."

He doesn't have to look to know there's a smile on Tyler's face. "I know."

4\. 1959

Tyler is sitting on his kitchen counter in nothing but a pair of Kit's boxers he stole and his binder.

Kit pulls at his binder strap, making it snap back hard enough that Tyler hisses. "You need a new one."

Tyler scowls at him, rubbing his shoulder exaggeratedly. "Ow!"

"Baby."

"I don't think this is the time for pet names," Tyler says, despite knowing exactly what Kit meant. Kit snorts, pulling the eggs out of the refrigerator.

It's routine enough that Tyler forgets Kit's comment. Tyler prefers to put off dealing with binders, with the humiliation of asking Evangeline or Ginny to make him a new one, of going through the process of measuring and sizing and finding out that he's once again sized up, that it's only getting worse.

So Tyler purposely thinks nothing of it, which is why he freezes as he pulls it over his head two weeks later only for the old fabric to rip.

Tyler stops breathing. Literally.

He has a spare.

The spare is at Kit's, because he'd been wearing it when Kit pushed him into the creek last week.

He doesn't have the spare.

There's a delicate rap on the doorframe. "Are you coming or not? You said you were going to come play hockey with us," Mindy says, little sister annoyance coating her voice.

Tyler chokes on his panic. It would be fine, even, if it was just Mindy. He could handle Cordelia and Michael and the others, too, his family. But it wasn't just them. There would be Austin and the possibility of Kate, and maybe even Nora or Grace if Michael was in that kind of mood.

He doesn't hear the door open, but Mindy must have come in since she's suddenly kneeling by him. "Ty?"

Tyler closes his eyes tight. Somehow, despite this mess, he can't stand the shame of his perfect little sister seeing him cry.

"Tyler, where's your spare? I'll get it for you."

Tyler shakes his head.

"No? What do you mean no? Tyler-"

"Call Kit."

"What?"

"I need you to call Kit and tell him to bring the spare."

"Why does Kit have your binder?"

"Because I left it there, Mindy, what do you think?" Tyler smacks her hand off his shoulder and immediately regrets it. "Just- please. I can't go out like this- not with everyone here-"

Mindy's expression hardens and she nods sharply, and if Tyler wasn't feeling so awful he'd smile because that's the exact same look she wears on a battlefield when she's given an order.

It doesn't take long for her to leave and come back, but Tyler knows someone's bound to have noticed his and Mindy's absence by now.

He feels it when Kit Steps over and exhales the breathe he's been holding.

Tyler doesn't even want to know what the others are thinking about Kit showing up so suddenly.

It doesn't matter right now.

Kit is comforting, in his own odd way. He's steady and level when he needs to be. Just the knowledge that he's here is enough to ease a little of the tension in Tyler's shoulders.

He taps on the door twice before he opens it, just enough to stick his hand in.

Tyler's spare binder dangles from his fingertips.

"I love you." Tyler chokes out as he grabs it and Kit shuts the door.

"I know," Kit replies, a thud against the door suggesting he's leaning on it.

Waiting for him.

Tyler ducks his head enough that his hair covers the red tips of his ears.

("You and Kit?" Oliver asks, later.

"We're not _together_ together," Tyler tells him, but doesn't explain more. They're rather undefined, and that's the way they like it. )

5\. 1970

Tyler had known something was up when he woke up to the sound of muffled curses since Kit didn't (or at least actively tried not to) curse. 

Nowhere on his list of things-that-could-make-Kit-swear was whatever the fuck this was. Kit's an injury magnet and clumsy as hell, but he usually isn't bleeding into the kitchen sink in the early morning hours.

"Are you _bleeding_? What the fuck, Christopher? How are you bleeding at seven in the morning?"

"Met a snapping turtle. Didn't appreciate my help crossing the street very much." Kit explains, holding his hand under the water to rinse the blood off his palm. 

To Tyler's dismay, there's a deep-looking puncture wound where it bit him. "Stay there."

"Obviously, I don't want to drip blood all over."

Tyler shoots him a glare before he leaves to retrieve the first-aid kit from the bathroom. 

Kit allows him to poke and prod and douse his hand in alcohol with minimal complaining, allowing Tyler to fuss over him. 

"Do you need to go to the hospital for a rabies shot?" 

Really, with how often Kit gets bitten by various wild animals, they should just stock them in the first-aid kit. 

"No, reptiles don't carry rabies."

"Huh, didn't know that." Tyler decides stitches aren't worth it, since it seems to be healing already, and just begins winding a bandage around Kit's palm. 

"I love you," Kit tells him as he finishes wrapping it, sticking some gauze tape on to hold it together. "Sorry that I worried you," he continues, softer. 

"I know," Tyler lets go of his hand, sticking the supplies back into the first-aid kit and throwing away the gauze wrappers. "Come back to bed and leave snapping turtles alone in the future."

+1. 1987

"Give me the screwdriver, please?"

Kit passes it wordlessly.

Tyler's wearing nothing a pair of shorts, top surgery scars bared, reading glasses perched on his nose as he reads the instructions. There's something beautiful about the freckles dusted over his narrow shoulders, about the way his bangs- just a little too long- keep flopping into his eyes, but Kit's a little biased. After all, he thinks Tyler is beautiful all the time.

"You could help, you know," Tyler mutters, glancing up.

Tyler raises his eyebrows at him when he catches him staring. "What?"

"I love you."

Tyler smiles. "I know."

"Don't you Princess-Leia me, Tyler Courbet." Kit teases, shoving at Tyler's shoulder lightly.

Tyler throws his head back laughing. " _Fine._ Love you too. Happy?"

Kit shoves him again, playfully stealing the instruction booklet from him. "Oh, definitely."


End file.
